Kase Lawal is a Nigerian-born businessman best known for his large oil company CAMAC, headquartered in Houston, Texas, as well as leading a diverse group of affiliate companies that comprise the second largest African-American-owned company in the United States with more than 1,000 employees worldwide. Kase Lawal was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1954. During his teenage years, he became interested in the United States, especially the American Civil Rights Movement. Lawal persuaded his father, who was an Ibadan politician, to send him to a university in the United States. Lawal first headed to Georgia and studied chemical engineering at Georgia Tech. He then moved to Houston, where he attended Texas Southern University. In 1976, he graduated from the university with a bachelor of science in chemistry. Lawal would later receive an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Texas Southern University and an honorary doctorate in philosophy from Fort Valley State University in Georgia. He earned a master’s of business administration in finance and marketing from Prairie View A&M University of Texas.
Lawal went on to work as a research chemist for a company that is now Haliburton and then as a chemical engineer for Shell Oil Refining Company. During this period, he met his wife, Eileen, and they had three children.
Lawal established CAMAC (which stands for Cameroon-American) in 1986, and it operated as a company that traded agricultural commodities such as rice, sugar, and tobacco. After the Nigerian government started to develop its energy market in the early 1990s, Lawal made a jump with CAMAC to the energy sector. In 1991, CAMAC made a deal with oil giant Conoco and agreed to operate and share production from any Nigerian discoveries jointly. A combination of his political contacts, local market knowledge, and the backing of a major oil firm made Lawal’s company a significant competitor in the oil industry. CAMAC has since expanded and now has offices in London (UK), Johannesburg (South Africa), Lagos, and Port Harcourt, Nigeria. It is also linked to the exploration, refining, and trading of oil. Lawal served as the CEO until April 11th, 2011, and currently has the role of chairman of the board of the company.
Lawal is also the founder of Erin Energy Corporation, has been its CEO since April 12th, 2011, and has been its director and chairman since April 2010. He serves as the chairman of Allied Energy and is on the Houston Mayoral Advisory Board. He is a member of the board of directors of Unity National Bank, the only federally insured and licensed African-American owned bank in Texas, and Cape Investment Holdings. Lawal was appointed in February 1999 as a member of the United States Trade Advisory Committee on Africa, which was an advisory group to the U.S. president and U.S. trade representative on trade policy on Africa.
Lawal, a member of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, received the US-Africa Business Person of the Year in 1997 award. In 2002, CAMAC was named the largest African-American-owned company on the Black Enterprise 100s list.
